In the autobiography Night, author Elie Wiesel believes he is to tell his story so that he can justify his survival and have nobody forget about the holocaust. Wiesel, being a Jew, was sent to Auschwitz, a concentration camp, during the holocaust. Unlike a million of his peers, Wiesel was lucky enough to not be killed at the concentration camp. When explaining this book’s meaning, he states, “I did nothing to save myself. A miracle? Certainly not. If heaven could or would perform a miracle for me, why not for others more deserving than myself? It was nothing more than chance” (Wiesel VII). He believes he got extremely lucky and that by surviving, he had an obligation to share what really happened. Another reason he wrote the novel was to make sure this event was never forgotten. He believed that the Germans wanted to erase this event from human memory, which he would not let stand. He also needed the Holocaust to have some emotion, not to just be an event people read about.
Assignment 2: Holocaust Web Search
Topics to Know
Questions
Answers
Nazi Propaganda
Who is Joseph Goebbels?
List three things the Nazis did to ensure that their views were shown/heard in the most persuasive manner possible.
Joseph Goebbels was the Minister of Propaganda and National Enlightenment. The Nazis did many things to make sure they were shown in a positive light including controlling film sets so that the films would not be derogatory towards them. They also hunted down people who would write articles that are negative toward the party. They also created the Reich Chamber of Commerce in which if you wanted to produce any literature, art, music, radio, film or newspaper, you would have to be a member.
Kristallnacht/ The Final Solution/ Wannsee Conference
Kristallnacht was an event in November 1938 in which the German government hosted Anti-Jewish riots. The term translates to night obf broken glass.
15 Nazis and Germans attended the conference in which they decided the best way to exterminate the Jews known as the Final Solution. The final solution was just a plan to complete wipe Jews off the face of the Earth, or at least Germany.
The Victims
Besides the Jewish people, list seven other groups were also targets/victims of the Holocaust?
Briefly tell the fate of each group under Nazi rule.
Besides Jews, the Nazis tried to exterminate gypsies, people with disabilities, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war, Afro Germans, Jehovah’s witnesses and homosexuals. Each group lost a lot of members but all of these groups overall survived.
The Ghettos
Describe the three types of ghettos, their purpose, and locations.
The three types of ghettos were closed ghettos, open ghettos, and destruction ghettos. These ghettos were made so that the Jews could isolated into different areas. Closed is the most often which is total isolation in which the prisoners are held in by fences or barbed wire. Open ghettos didn’t have fencing but entering and exiting was controlled, this was popular in Romanian countries. Destruction ghettos was basically a place for the Jews to stay until they were shot ruthlessly leading to a terrible, terrible death.
The soviets liberated the concentration camps. Near the end of the war, Hitler committed suicide. 24 defendants were charged in the Nuremberg trials and they represented German diplomatic, economic, political, and military leadership. The tribunal decided that following orders wasn’t a legitimate defense.
Assignment 3: Images of Night
Camps
Dreary and sad
Working, killing, screaming
Lika a pizza in the oven screaming to death
Pizzas going to heaven
Baking
To die for their own kind
Table of Contents
Erik B. Night Assignments
Assignment 1: Reasons for Writing
A Surviving Memory
In the autobiography Night, author Elie Wiesel believes he is to tell his story so that he can justify his survival and have nobody forget about the holocaust. Wiesel, being a Jew, was sent to Auschwitz, a concentration camp, during the holocaust. Unlike a million of his peers, Wiesel was lucky enough to not be killed at the concentration camp. When explaining this book’s meaning, he states, “I did nothing to save myself. A miracle? Certainly not. If heaven could or would perform a miracle for me, why not for others more deserving than myself? It was nothing more than chance” (Wiesel VII). He believes he got extremely lucky and that by surviving, he had an obligation to share what really happened. Another reason he wrote the novel was to make sure this event was never forgotten. He believed that the Germans wanted to erase this event from human memory, which he would not let stand. He also needed the Holocaust to have some emotion, not to just be an event people read about.
Assignment 2: Holocaust Web Search
List three things the Nazis did to ensure that their views were shown/heard in the most persuasive manner possible.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/propaganda_in_nazi_germany.htm
Wannsee Conference
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/kristallnacht/
Who attended and what was decided at the Wannsee Conference?
What was the Final Solution?
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005477
15 Nazis and Germans attended the conference in which they decided the best way to exterminate the Jews known as the Final Solution. The final solution was just a plan to complete wipe Jews off the face of the Earth, or at least Germany.
Briefly tell the fate of each group under Nazi rule.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007457
CLUE: Begin reading at “Targeted Groups”
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005059
What was life like in the ghettos?
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007445
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005144
What were the conditions?
What different types of extermination were performed?
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005145
The conditions were basically the Jews were sent then killed. They were killed in gas chambers or by shooting
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005131
What did Hitler do near the end of the war?
How many defendants were charged during the Nuremberg Trials? What did they represent?
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007143
What did the International Military Tribunal decide was not a legitimate defense?
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007142
Assignment 3: Images of Night
Camps
Dreary and sad
Working, killing, screaming
Lika a pizza in the oven screaming to death
Pizzas going to heaven
Baking
To die for their own kind